Some wisdom I would share with my friends.
My grandfather, the most spiritual, wise, righteous, and humble servant of God I have ever personally known in the flesh once said he learned to live by a 90/10 rule for his ministry. He allowed himself to spend no more than 10% of his time addressing or trying to help people he knew he couldn't really help - people who would never change. That way he could spend the majority of his time (the other 90%) on people who he could help, people who might actually hear, repent, change, or be helped in some way.
This is not in conflict with leaving the 99 to save the 1, because the 1 lost sheep could be saved.
This is not about abandoning people who only "appear" beyond help on the surface.
God is love, and His servants must let LOVE rule their actions, but they must also discern what is what and work where the field is ripe and ready for harvest.
The 90/10 rule is about keeping proper focus, about bearing more fruit, and about not allowing Satan to hold any more of your attention or focus than absolutely necessary.
It is natural for people to be drawn to conflict and darkness. I see it on message boards, for example, where there is great contention and Satan is having a hay-day, that thread with the contention will have more people responding and reading than any other thread. As I said, this is only natural, but the natural man is an enemy of God. Placing our focus there will draw us away from what is important and bleed out God's people... weakening them, taking away from the true ministry.
